


A Stitch in time

by Turtlepearlove



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/M, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-20
Updated: 2014-01-23
Packaged: 2018-01-09 10:08:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1144713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turtlepearlove/pseuds/Turtlepearlove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Stiles is thrown back in time, she is half convinced that it is all just an elaborate joke on her sanity. She wants to  change history, except she is 9 years old and Derek isn't the one wanting or needing. And he may not be the sympathetic character that history paints him to be!</p><p> </p><p>Excerpt: The scene was out of a b grade horror movie, Ennis wolfed out red eyes staring at the shivering girl attempting to crawl away from him. <br/>He looked maniacal, out of control, fangs dripping saliva as he made her way towards her. Slowly, in no hurry like a predator stalking an injured prey, confident and smug about his eminent victory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The brightness of the light is what hurts her the most; abstractly she thinks that the heat should inevitably be the more painful of the two. But for now, is the light, the kind that burrows into your skulls and the paper thinness of your lids barely adequate.

Your life is supposed to flash before your eyes moments before your die, she understands that bit clearly. When she was 10 and hiding in her tree house she had choked on a piece of caramel, the hacking coughs that stole her breath, and the pain that had burned and burned. She had seen death then, white and beautiful, flickering before her eyes before she had passed out.

Inside her rune circle, she sees the barrier flicker, barely keeping the fire out. The light is too bright to see her friend’s horrified faces. Dead at 19, she is thankful for the fact that she made it so far, she thinks of her dad, of Scott, of Lydia and then Derek. Because of course this would end in a fire, and everything he touched ended scorched and irretrievable.

The last rune she saw spelled ‘life’ and she closed her eyes.

\---

“Watch it Stilinski” Aiden pushed past her as she glared at his back

The antagonistic relationship with either of the twins hadn’t changed over the years, nor did the slight brush of shoulders as Scott passed beside her.

“Everyone here?”

“So we have a dragon problem”

It would have sounded amusing except it really wasn’t, the dragon in question literally fed off the power of the land and was a territorial bitch.

After getting their fur singed off more than once Scott had accepted that the subject in question required planned action, and Stiles and Lydia became inadvertently in charge of the research part.

“You just have to chant?” Scott sounded surprised.

“Yes” She agreed, except it has to be a human chanting and somehow in the presence of the dragon without getting burned.

Derek looked sickened, the colour draining off his face. She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around his wrists, except they did not have that kind of a relationship.

“There is a rune circle”

Scott looked at Lydia in surprise, “of course I will have to draw it for her, but it should do the trick”

“To keep the fire out” she clarifies.

She looked over at Derek then, his posture drawn tight, tense shoulders like he was ready for an argument. She half expected him to, from the thinness of his lips or the frequent glances that Cora threw at him.

Except he didn’t, drew himself straight and threw her a wary glance.

\---

She wakes up.

For a brief second she is surprised, the room is achingly familiar.

“Stiles are you up there?”

When she was 9 her dad had build her a tree house, after her mother’s death and the alarmingly ong time she spent on her, her therapist had suggested that the tree house had to be taken down.

She remembered hiding in Scott’s room to drown out the noise of her tree house being taken down, she hadn’t spoken to her father for a week then.

The sunlight filters through, slow and lazy, the carpet the feels soft underneath her body that she lets her mind. She supposed this is some kind of slow moment inside her head, protecting her mind as the fire burns her body.

Her father looks tired, she wondered if her 9 year old self had noticed her father’s dark circles, the faint alarm on her face as he sees her.

“You shouldn’t spend so much time up here”

She grins at him, which seems to surprise him

“It’s nice here, come up”

He climbs in with trepidation and lays down beside her, looks heart breaking tired as she buries beside him feeling safe.

She would never have this again, the feeling of being safe and protected.

“Lunch is ready” Stiles had learned to note the tell tale cracks in his voice, “What is for lunch” she tries for cheeriness.

“Left over tuna casserole”

She scrunched up her face in disgust making her father laugh, “Come down Stiles”

The house was a bit of a mess she noted; it was odd that her memory had such a strange yet accurate recollection. Her father was still dressed in shirt that still had creases, this was way before she had mastered the art of laundry days and drawn up a schedule before they ran out of clean clothes.

It was an uneventful day; maybe that is why her memory had picked it in the first place. Shortly after her mother’s death when her father and her were still finding footing in a strange, hostile world.

She watched an episode of Sabrina the teenage witch, and laughed along the inaccuracies of magic. It was amusing nonetheless, as she sunk down the couch and did nothing but watch TV.

Her computer was alarmingly slow as she suffered through the slow start up, she was wondering about why her the inside of her insisted on being so annoyingly realistic as the date popped up on her screen.

5 June 2005, there was nothing special that struck up about the date. It wouldn’t be for another two months before Scott’s dad would pack his bags and leave, it had been two months till her mother’s death.

She couldn’t think of a reason why her head had picked out this specific date.

The realization of it crawled her spine, plunging icy shards of fear into her.

“6th June 2005 at 3 am” was what was written on top of the page in the bestiary for the entry Nemeton, the day of the first virgin sacrifice, the day that started it all.

The sun was still visible in the horizon, but it was late already. She wandered if it was some cruel joke in her mind, to see the act that would be her undoing.

She was a part of a well oiled machine, trained like a soldier, in constant battle at the new horrors that the Nameton had opened. Most of her youth was spend as such, and now her memories had trapped her in a time when her nightmares had actually started, a place with no escape.

She was out of breath before she reached her school, locked up and the sky darkening cast shadows that made the building look truly terrifying. She helped herself in, no one actually attempted to sneak back into a closed school after all.

She walked through the empty corridors feeling a bit lost, the walls or pictures hadn’t changed over the years much. After knowing the real monsters the Nameton would inadvertently attract, she couldn’t bring herself to feel the same kind of fear that a nine year old in an empty school would normally feel.

The distant growl startled her, the light at the hallway to the Gym was dim enough but the girl’s scream was distinct.

She ran towards the source,

“Hey furface”

the scene was out of a b grade horror movie, Ennis wolfed out red eyes staring at the shivering girl attempting to crawl away from him. 

He looked maniacal, out of control, fangs dripping saliva as he made her way towards her. Slowly, in no hurry like a predator stalking an injured prey, confident and smug about his eminent victory.

Ennis snapped his eyes towards her, growling menacingly.

“Why don’t you pick someone your own size”

She ran for it, vaguely remembering the fact that Scott had told her chasing someone awoke the more primitive side of him. Looking like a prey was her best bet to get Ennis away from the girl.

Ennis took the bait, unfortunately her 19 year old toned body would have run circles around him, whereas her nine year old body was drawing in terrified gasps that burned her lungs.

She stumbled and fell, Ennis huge teeth sunk into her upper body as she futilely tried to stop him. Her last coherent thought that at least she had managed to circumvent the virgin sacrifice bit.

 ---

There was light again, the burning terrifying kind that for a moment she thought she was back in the circle, then there were sounds. A cacophony of it, too loud for her to distinguish the source, there was people talking, gravel crunching, the sound of blaring horns, passing vehicles, heavy breathing, beating hearts, a sub vocal whine that seems to be originating nearby.

There is a woman nearby, her heartbeat steady and deafening as she looks as Stiles. There is something about her that seems to command respect, half of Stiles wants to draw away and growl at her while the other half defer to her.

“Stiles”

There is her father besides her now smelling of salt and fading gunpowder that makes her want to curl into a ball “Sweetheart are you okay?”

But her attention is mostly fixed on the woman, something about her that unnerves her, makes the hair at the back of her neck stand up “Stiles I want you to concentrate on your father”

There is a command to the voice, the steady thump of his heart sounds louder “Stiles”

The whining seems to stop the moment she realizes that she is the one making it, the heightened sensations, the presence of the older woman, it is a wonder that it took her so long to draw the right conclusions- she is a werewolf.


	2. Chapter 2

 

Stiles was lying face flat on her childhood bed, the one that had to be replaced when she shot up to 5’10. Beneath the scent of detergent, soap and sweat, she could smell the faintest traces of lavender. The kind of perfume her mother wore, she pressed her nose further into her bed, drawing lungful of that comforting scent, ignoring the sudden rush of tears that filled her eyes.

She could hear Talia speaking downstairs, without an attempt to lower her voice, she knew that Stiles knew too.

“So what is going to happen now?” Her father sounded weary and scared.

“She is a wolf now, not completely of course it just means certain things like better strength, better immunity, better reflexes”

“I would suggest home schooling for a while now, till she learns better control”

Her father sighed, “I suppose you know someone willing to teach, who will not balk at the sign of claws”

“She can study at our home of course, some of the younger ones haven’t got a hang of their teeth and claws yet”

Her father did not seem to be very appreciative of Talia’s humor, she remembered the Hale kids, vaguely of course ‘a little free spirited’ mother used to say, but the baker who packed their cakes had much more colourful things to say.

She was going to be one of those kids now!

She didn’t really understand how she was here, whether she was really in her head creating an ideal time line to protect her sanity, whether she had somehow miraculously travelled back in time, whether the run circle had transported her into an alternate dimension where the choking hard candy bit proved fatal to her nine year old self.

“What was a werewolf doing in a school anyway, and you said there was another girl, Paige?”

She recognised her father’s police voice, perking up to hear Talia’s reply.

“There was some sort of altercation between my son Derek and the other alpha tried to bite Paige Derek’s girlfriend, your daughter intervened”

“The girl safe?”

“Yes she is doing fine, a bit spooked”

Stiles waited for the tell tale skip of her heart anything to give away the fact that Talia was lying, except there was nothing, she knew for a fact that teenaged Derek wouldn’t have been any better liar than adult Derek was, meaning that Talia was well aware of the facts merely choosing to selectively alter the truth in her version.

“I am going to kill that sick son of a bitch”

“He is taken care of”

There was finality to her voice that seemed to shut her father up as well.

She wanted until Talia was out of the house to groan into the bed, she didn’t particularly like her.

 ---

She was surprised to see Scott come in, standing awkwardly at her doorway “your dad said you were sick”

She had forgotten how adorable nine year old Scott had been, all floppy haired and doe eyed.

She pushed her duvet aside and patted on her bed, Scott dived in eagerly “you don’t look very sick”

“Dad thinks I should be home school”

The colour drained out of Scott’s face “What?”

“With the Hale kids”

“Did something happen?”

Scott looked worried, chewing on his bottom lip. She had forgotten how fragile Scott used to be, he was a weary, scrawny kid whose dad was just not satisfied with him, a kid who heard his parents fight all the time, the kind of kid who was teased about being too dumb, or shoved into lockers.

She could hear his breathing, how it rattled in his chest. She wanted to smoothen it out, wrap him up before the world took him apart.

She never wanted to hide anything from Scott, he was after all her best friend, her constant, but she didn’t want to take away his innocence again. She wanted the familiar tones of powdered sugar and hint of musk that clung on to him, she wanted those huge eyes to look at her with the same devotion he always had, she wrapped her arms around him and breathed in, she would bring Scott into it of course, just not right now!

 ---

The Hale house was huge and intimidating, with a barely gravelled drive way caused her father and his cruiser to make a lot of colourful noises, “would it kill them to pave the drive way?”

She grinned at her father, the house was beautiful, wrought iron railings and a creeper growing at the side of the house. Talia stood at the doorway along with a taller man who Stiles assumed was her husband, she never did know much about the Hales and Derek wasn’t the one to share. Talia looked like she was trying to be appealing and motherly, but with her straight back and sharp cheekbones she didn’t look kind or welcoming, she looked like an Alpha. Her husband on the other hand was scruffy looking with laugh lines around his eyes looked more welcoming.

The house smelled nice, like flowers from outside, the woods, wet earth and like people. It smelled warm and comforting, like pack she realised with a start.

Talia laid down her hand on Stiles shoulder on what appeared to be a comforting gesture, “we can watch over her”. She wondered what Mr and Mrs Hale did to afford such a grand house, her thoughts were however interrupted, “let me introduce you to the rest of the family”

The Hale children were gathered around like a mock parody of a family, all dressed up in and still- looking. There was an odd undercurrent of tension, tough and unwelcome; no one seemed to want her there.

There was a boy there, skinny and long dressed in jeans grinning at her “there hasn’t been a bitten member in the hale pack for the last 40 years”

There is nothing kind in his eyes even though his mouth is stretched in a wide smile “I am Peter”

Stiles smiles, only because she can’t help it, of course it would be Peter. Apparently it wasn’t the fire that turned Peter into a creepy little shit.

“Let me introduce the rest of them”

She could hear the steel in Talia’s voice, she wondered briefly if the others noticed it as well.

Laura is a bored 17 year who looks at Stiles with vague disinterest, she is strong and beautiful and Stiles can’ quite hide her admiration for the other girl.

Cora was a hyper 9 year old who looked like she hated clothes, tugging at her tee shirt with more aggressiveness than necessary gave Stiles a bored glance.

There was the baby hale named Emma who looked curiously at Stiles, she smelled like milk and baby powder.

There were two other girls Anna and Joanna and a boy named Michael, and a couple that looked way too young to have three children who were introduced as Talia’s youngest sister and husband. The Hale line seemed to be matriarchal like the Argents, she wondered if they would be amused at the similarity.

Derek had big ears and a bigger scowl on his face, didn’t quiet look like someone who had his girlfriend saved due to Stiles interference.

“You should ask her what she was doing at the school”

Peter looked delighted at the question smiled kindly at Stiles “did you get lost?” in what appeared to a sickly sweet tone.

She smiled back at Peter, being nine had its advantages “I just had a bad feeling”

Talia looked taken aback; the truth about lying to werewolf’s had always been selective omission. She did have a bad feeling, only because she already knew what was to happen.

Her wide brown and slow blinks did the trick.

“Divination has always been a rare gift”

She turned to look at the source, Deaton who still looked wise and bald and put Stiles on edge still. She wondered if he knew even though it was as impossible as her being here in the first place she had learned over the years not to underestimate Deaton.

She smiled at him, tentatively and he smiled back.

“I knew your mother”

The sudden onslaught of tears did not have to be faked; the memories were too fresh for her nine year old self. Especially the one who could still smell the faint scent of her mother around the house, she knew they would eventually fade and the desperate desperate craving to have her touch never really went away.

Deaton looked away as if he felt guilty for having brought it up, it was Cora who stepped up and nuzzled her neck. Don’t feel sad, I don’t like the smell of salt, it would have sounded weird to anyone else but to a werewolf without personal boundaries it made sense.

“Can Stiles have a cookie mom, she smells sad”

So stiles did have cookies and milk and cuddled i the sofa with Cora and Joanna and little Emma who sprouted claws and fangs when the cookie plate was taken away. Talia merely chose to growl at her youngest and Cora settled her in her lap.

“She is not old enough to climb trees”

And that was that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to know if there is anything appealing or unappealing you find in the story. Any direction in which I should NOT take the story in, please let me know.  
> I will make the next chapter longer!


End file.
